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Hi AC/FICTALKers. If you see this (11/12/2024) please see new post in General Discussions about Open Doors OTW Organization for Transformative Works) offering to help preserve the AC archive and let me know your thoughts:

https://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,3415.msg125627.html#new

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Author Topic: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)  (Read 451879 times)

RokofAges75

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #660 on: May 30, 2021, 11:08:27 PM »

Here's another rant about AO3:  I hate how it automatically labels each chapter as Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.  What if you have a Prologue and Epilogue and don't want them called "Chapter" anything?  I started posting SAMS and had to just post the prologue (which is very short, thankfully) and first chapter together as "Chapter 1."  Otherwise my numbering would have been off for the whole story, and I would have gotten confused when posting.

I just need to not do prologues and epilogues anymore.  I think SAMS is the last story that has both.
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"Sometimes writers and sociopaths are hard to tell apart." -J.K. Rowling

nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #661 on: May 30, 2021, 11:31:06 PM »

I figured out how to use the advanced search to put all the AO3 stories in ascending order by date last updated, and there are a whole bunch dated 1950 that were clearly not actually written in 1950 LOL.  A few pages in, I found a Beatles fanfic backdated to 1964.  That could just be the year the story takes place, but it could be legit.  At least a Beatles fic written in 1964 makes sense, unlike the One Direction/Harry Potter crossover that is also dated 1964 LOL.  Apparently people were also writing Game of Thrones fanfic in 1969 LOL.  Then there are a series of Star Trek fanfics from 1975 that are legit and were originally published in fanzines.

I do remember the one narrated by Kevin's cat Quincy.  I'm not sure if I ever actually read it, but I definitely remember coming across it back in the day.

Those 1975 Star Trek ones make perfect sense. I'm going to say those are the earliest ones posted.

None of the other ones by the author sounded familiar though, so who knows!


LOL Basically.  It's described as a form of hurt/comfort that's heavy on the hurt.

Aww, I think the hurt and comfort need to be at least equal. You know I love to torture Nick, but he's gotta have a chance at earning his happy ending.


How has your writing gone tonight?  I also got a very late start today.  My teacher bestie invited me over for day drinking and dinner, so I mowed the lawn and then headed over to her house and didn't write anything until about 9 p.m., when I wrote a sentence just to make sure I got something down.  I am not anticipating writing much more tonight, but hopefully tomorrow will be better now that I got my yard work and socializing quota in for the long weekend.

My only request is Death by Snail!  Otherwise, write what you wanna write!

I hung out with my bestie today for brunch and then we ended up watching Soul, so good! It was really nice catching up with her in person. And it's been raining all day, so I came home ready to write and wrote about 350 words then picked hubs up from the train station. Then we ate dinner and cuddled, but now he's sleeping, so I'm ready to start writing a little again. I did spend a long time in my earlier writing session doing some rereading looking for the right quote, but I've got it and can move on now!

Your day sounds fun too! :) Or at least productive for the lawn mowing (not sure if it is also fun, lol). Glad you got a sentence in! Keep the streak alive for the month!

And don't worry, Death by Snail is the plan!


I don't know yet.  The Brian horror story, Fallen Angel, is still a possibility.  I also have a Nick suspense idea.  Or I may come up with something brand new.  Or maybe go back to Guilty Roads... ha!  We'll see.  I'm not far enough into MBK to give it any serious thought yet.  I just posted Chapter 10 yesterday and started Chapter 19 today, so I'm 8 finished chapters ahead.  I'm still thinking it's going to be in the 40-50 chapter range.  It feels like I could be nearing the halfway point.

Didn't word that well, haha. I meant if you'll want to hang on to the ending for a regular posting schedule or quicken your posting pace at that point. It was more a pondering than a question. Don't derail yourself on to the next thing yet! You're almost halfway done! That's exciting!


LOL Poor Howie.

I know... I'm terrible to poor Howie! I think the next chapter may be Howie's POV chapter.


Downer endings are tough.  Do you think that's why you haven't finished any of the ones that were supposed to be downers (or, in the case of PBox, changed them to be bittersweet?).

Not sure! I think it was more that they were Nick romances without the other Boys more than anything else! That and a downer romance is less fun.

PBox only became bittersweet because Nick refused to die, lol. It was for the best.


I only have one true downer of an ending to a novel in the post-Broken era, and it's the one that gives me the least sense of satisfaction or emotional connection.  It ends with two of the four main characters dead, one in prison, and one widowed.  I stand by that ending and would not change any of the characters' fates, but although I like the story, it's not one I particularly enjoyed writing or look back at with a lot of nostalgia the way I do other novels.  I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the ending itself, or if it's just coincidence that the ones with happy or bittersweet endings are the ones I feel more connected to.

I wonder if it has something to do with how you felt about writing it at the time. If you didn't feel connected to it with enjoyment while writing it, it makes sense that you wouldn't have nostalgia about it now. How far before getting to the downer ending did you start feeling the disconnect? Was it one you planned the downer ending for from the beginning?


Yeah, I don't think Nick was a hot mess yet at 19.  That was more 2003-2008ish.  Brian and Kevin getting married and then Kevin leaving the group probably didn't help, but I also think he was just at that age where he needed to find himself, the way most kids do in college.  Since he didn't go to college, he did it in his own way.

Fine... here, Kevin, have a plot bunny.  Just don't have #Anal Sex with it.

It's probably really hard trying to find yourself in the public eye. I feel for him. I'm sure I had plenty of hot mess moments, they were just much less widely documented, lol. I think we all do a little experimenting and soul searching in our early twenties. Modern society has just kind of made it that way.

LMAO!


I wanna say 2001?  Maybe 2002?  Somewhere around there.

Hmmm... Nope, that would be too late. I definitely started writing fanfic in 1999. I didn't post it anywhere (at the time), but I definitely wrote it. I have no idea then.


Oh girl!  You did miss a lot!

That was my reaction the first time I saw it LOL.  https://twitter.com/RokofAges75/status/269142830767824896  The replies to this tweet are where the term "pandaskunk" was coined.

And then Mare made a challenge about it, but I had already started writing my story: http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/index.php/topic,3104.15.html

I know! I told you to shame me!

LOL! I enjoyed all the "this has Nick written all over it." The Boys were just not animated well. I see you broke her "one chapter" challenge rules too, lol.


Yeah, I think I would have a harder time writing a story set in college or high school now.  Another nail in the coffin for my Broken original novel LOL.  Maybe there's more hope for Gobosei.  See... never say never!

It's not that bad with PBox! I mean, most of it doesn't take place in school, so that might be the difference, but it wasn't too bad getting back into "things that happen in high school" mindset. Although, the difference may be that while "coming of age" is a theme, high school drama tropes are not.

Aww, I bet many themes from Broken as is would still cross over without seeming too high school even with a high school aged protagonist.


I don't think it's nice.  Imagine missing BSB at their peak!  We were born at the perfect time.  The late 90s were awesome!!  I think 1997 in particular was a magical year because so many of my favorite things came out in that year:  BSB's U.S. debut, Titanic, South Park, and Harry Potter, to name a few.

It was after 4 by the time I finally went to sleep!  Two days in, and I'm already getting into my "stay up all night and sleep all morning" summer schedule.

Good point. I wouldn't give up experiencing the late 90's first hand! I forget sometimes that all those things were in 1997, but you're right! Super magical!

And you don't have to teach vampire kids at night to do it! How does it feel getting back to your natural circadian rhythm? That feels so late though! Now I feel old again.
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #662 on: May 30, 2021, 11:35:52 PM »

Here's another rant about AO3:  I hate how it automatically labels each chapter as Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.  What if you have a Prologue and Epilogue and don't want them called "Chapter" anything?  I started posting SAMS and had to just post the prologue (which is very short, thankfully) and first chapter together as "Chapter 1."  Otherwise my numbering would have been off for the whole story, and I would have gotten confused when posting.

I just need to not do prologues and epilogues anymore.  I think SAMS is the last story that has both.

I don't like how it automatically labels them either. I like how on AC, you can just replace it with whatever you want to write. As you know, I'm a "Chapter One: Chapter Title" author and don't like "Chapter 1."

I get how having a "Chapter 1" for the Prologue would be weird, because then the first chapter would be "Chapter 2."

I wonder what the reasoning behind the automatic labels was.
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

RokofAges75

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #663 on: May 31, 2021, 01:04:26 AM »

Those 1975 Star Trek ones make perfect sense. I'm going to say those are the earliest ones posted.

None of the other ones by the author sounded familiar though, so who knows!

Yep, they do make perfect sense!  I know Star Trek fanfic published in fanzines was a major thing in the history of fanfic.  I'm not a Trekkie, but it's cool to see some of them archived online.

I do remember the name Carrie/Kikiduck.  I'm not sure I ever actually read any of her stories, but I know she was around in the early days.


Aww, I think the hurt and comfort need to be at least equal. You know I love to torture Nick, but he's gotta have a chance at earning his happy ending.

I agree, the comfort part is important too.  I don't know if mine are always equally balanced, but my "whumpiest" stories are usually the ones with the earned happy endings.


I hung out with my bestie today for brunch and then we ended up watching Soul, so good! It was really nice catching up with her in person. And it's been raining all day, so I came home ready to write and wrote about 350 words then picked hubs up from the train station. Then we ate dinner and cuddled, but now he's sleeping, so I'm ready to start writing a little again. I did spend a long time in my earlier writing session doing some rereading looking for the right quote, but I've got it and can move on now!

Your day sounds fun too! :) Or at least productive for the lawn mowing (not sure if it is also fun, lol). Glad you got a sentence in! Keep the streak alive for the month!

And don't worry, Death by Snail is the plan!

Oh good!  It's nice to catch up with friends.  I don't always want to go be social (especially on a day when I was looking forward to writing), but I'm always glad I did.

It was absolutely perfect weather here today - sunny and upper 60s/lower 70s - so it was a good day to mow the lawn and hang outside.  I hate yard work, but it's most tolerable on days like this.

I was hoping the 21 word sentence I wrote in one minute would improve my 3 words per minute average on Nano, but alas, it did not.  Oh well.  At least the streak is alive, and my next chapter is technically started.  I probably won't continue it until morning when I am more clear-headed LOL.

I'm glad you found the quote you were looking for and can move on!  And hooray for Death by Snail!


Didn't word that well, haha. I meant if you'll want to hang on to the ending for a regular posting schedule or quicken your posting pace at that point. It was more a pondering than a question. Don't derail yourself on to the next thing yet! You're almost halfway done! That's exciting!

Oh!  Haha, that makes sense now that I think about the conversation that led up to that part of your last post.  I probably will stick to the regular posting schedule with this one.


Not sure! I think it was more that they were Nick romances without the other Boys more than anything else! That and a downer romance is less fun.

PBox only became bittersweet because Nick refused to die, lol. It was for the best.

As someone who hates most romantic comedies and loves a good romantic tearjerker, I would argue that downer romances are way more fun!  But that's just me.  I do think stories with all the Boys are more fun than stories with just one of them, though, but that's harder with romance, where the focus usually is on one of them and a romantic partner.  That's the beauty of slash - you can focus on at least two of them that way.

Aww, good for you for putting up a fight, PBox Nick!  I don't think I've ever pardoned one of the Boys once I made the decision to kill him... I am merciless LOL.  Or maybe I'm just more uncompromising when it comes to changing my planned ending.


I wonder if it has something to do with how you felt about writing it at the time. If you didn't feel connected to it with enjoyment while writing it, it makes sense that you wouldn't have nostalgia about it now. How far before getting to the downer ending did you start feeling the disconnect? Was it one you planned the downer ending for from the beginning?

I do think that's a big part of it.  I never did feel very connected to it.  It was a story I started posting on a whim after a really productive writing weekend and then struggled to update consistently for over three years until I finally forced myself to finish it.  I really do like the story and am happy with the finished product, but it's not one I particularly enjoyed writing.  It was always more of a side project until I made it be my main project for one summer and finished it.  The downer ending was planned all along; I had the whole thing outlined chapter by chapter from the beginning and didn't stay from my outline except to condense it a little.  The fact that I forced myself to finish it does give me some hope that the same thing could happen with Guilty Roads someday.


It's probably really hard trying to find yourself in the public eye. I feel for him. I'm sure I had plenty of hot mess moments, they were just much less widely documented, lol. I think we all do a little experimenting and soul searching in our early twenties. Modern society has just kind of made it that way.

Yes, I agree.  I'm glad social media wasn't a big thing yet during most of that time in his life, so most of the bad behavior he's since copped to wasn't caught on video or widely publicized.  There was enough to know he was not in the best place in his life, but so much more came out after the fact when he did that People interview and then wrote his memoir.  I'm glad I did not know all those details at the time LOL.


Hmmm... Nope, that would be too late. I definitely started writing fanfic in 1999. I didn't post it anywhere (at the time), but I definitely wrote it. I have no idea then.

I looked it up, and yep, it was May 2001.  The Bauhaus is still online, just no longer being updated. http://backstreet-bauhaus.net/  So it must have been a different site.  I read my first fanfic in the summer of 1999 and started writing it sometime in the winter... either the end of 99 or very beginning of 2000.  I had finished my first "novel" (all 9,106 words of it LMAO) by February 2000 when I got it hosted on a site called Escape from Reality, which is also still online but no longer being updated.  God bless Angelfire LOL. https://www.angelfire.com/ca2/theyvegotitgoinon/  This damn site stopped updating partway through posting my story, so it's not complete on the site.  That kind of crap was a big motivator for me to figure out how to make my own site so I could be in control.


I know! I told you to shame me!

LOL! I enjoyed all the "this has Nick written all over it." The Boys were just not animated well. I see you broke her "one chapter" challenge rules too, lol.

My story was not written for the challenge.  I had already started it before Mare issued the challenge and knew it was going to be more than one chapter and have a banner, so I didn't even bother submitting it for that.  But yeah - this is why I don't do most challenges; I hate having rules to follow LOL.

Funny story - I flew out to Vegas to go to an IAWLT show with Rose and another friend in 2013, and we made shirts with the pandaskunk on the front.  We did VIP, and the Boys liked our shirts.  We had a nice little conversation with them about that video and asked if Nick was the one who came up with the pandaskunk or overall concept.  They said no, it was just designed by whatever animation company did the video.  We were disappointed there was no good back story behind it, but oh well.  At least we got a fun interaction out of it.  We wore those same shirts on one of the cruises, and Brian noticed us in the crowd (because they are bright red), so now it's become our thing.  We make new pandaskunk shirts in different colors for every tour.


It's not that bad with PBox! I mean, most of it doesn't take place in school, so that might be the difference, but it wasn't too bad getting back into "things that happen in high school" mindset. Although, the difference may be that while "coming of age" is a theme, high school drama tropes are not.

Aww, I bet many themes from Broken as is would still cross over without seeming too high school even with a high school aged protagonist.

That's good to know.  I do think Broken would have worked well with Nick as a high schooler, but the older and further removed from high school I get, the harder it seems to write that character and setting realistically.  Which is funny because when I was writing Broken, I was in high school and constantly questioning if my Nick seemed too immature because I was only 18 and didn't know what it was like to be 23 LOL.


How does it feel getting back to your natural circadian rhythm? That feels so late though! Now I feel old again.

It feels good!  I did some research on this last year and discovered there is a sleep disorder called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  It's where your natural circadian rhythm is off by at least two hours beyond what is considered "normal" sleeping and waking times, which makes it hard to fall asleep and wake up at normal times.  I think I may have a mild case of it.  It doesn't affect my day to day life because I don't let it - I drug myself with melatonin or Benadryl so I can sleep at night and wake up in the morning with multiple alarms - but it would explain why I fall into this nocturnal sleep pattern whenever I have an extended break from my normal work schedule.  I have done this every summer since I started teaching and no longer had a summer job, but never on purpose - it just gradually happens.  I also think it probably has a lot to do with my introverted personality and writing.  I like being up at night because it's quiet and no one bugs me, so there are fewer distractions.  I can focus better and be more productive.  There's no pressure to run errands or be social or do yard work in the middle of the night, so I can write or do whatever I want guilt-free.


I don't like how it automatically labels them either. I like how on AC, you can just replace it with whatever you want to write. As you know, I'm a "Chapter One: Chapter Title" author and don't like "Chapter 1."

I get how having a "Chapter 1" for the Prologue would be weird, because then the first chapter would be "Chapter 2."

I wonder what the reasoning behind the automatic labels was.

Another good point about the "Chapter One" vs. "Chapter 1."  AC is definitely better.

Yeah, I started out just posting the prologue as "Chapter 1" and the actual Chapter 1 as "Chapter 2," but I realized I would probably get confused by that down the road and leave out a chapter or something.  So I just posted the prologue and Chapter 1 together and am now back on track.
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~Julie

"Sometimes writers and sociopaths are hard to tell apart." -J.K. Rowling

nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #664 on: May 31, 2021, 02:51:00 PM »

I'll pop back in a little later to respond to our writing discourse, but I've apparently missed writing Justin the "Magnificent Bastard," dang! I forgot just how joyfully evil he was. I'm only a tiny bit into this scene, but I am loving every second of it so far. See, this is why I can't tag PBox&Co as a crossover on AO3 even though it technically is one, lol.
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~*Dee*~

People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

RokofAges75

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #665 on: May 31, 2021, 03:18:59 PM »

Hehe, I love evil fanfic Justin.  I agree with the crossover thing, though; I probably wouldn't tag characters from other fandoms if they were just there to be villains or be made fun of.  I would be tempted with a story like 00Carter where some of them really are legit characters, but somehow I don't think the fans of other boybands would enjoy the way their members are portrayed LOL.

I technically could have tagged other fandoms besides BSB for my pandaskunk stories because there are a lot of Disney and Star Wars characters that make appearances, as well as real people like Lance Bass, Aaron Carter, and Melissa Schuman, but I don't feel like people looking for stories in that fandom would see mine as a legit crossover, so it just feels like a spammy thing to do.

I'm glad you're having fun writing today!
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nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #666 on: May 31, 2021, 11:30:36 PM »

Yep, they do make perfect sense!  I know Star Trek fanfic published in fanzines was a major thing in the history of fanfic.  I'm not a Trekkie, but it's cool to see some of them archived online.

I do remember the name Carrie/Kikiduck.  I'm not sure I ever actually read any of her stories, but I know she was around in the early days.

I think it's awesome that some of those writers are archiving their fanzine works online as well! What a fun nod to some of the earliest fanfics! At least in the sense of the modern definition of "fanfic," transformative works have been around probably about as long as stories themselves.

I wonder when she started putting them on AO3. Obviously they're backdated, but I wonder if it was more recently or a while ago. When did you all start putting your stuff on AO3?


I agree, the comfort part is important too.  I don't know if mine are always equally balanced, but my "whumpiest" stories are usually the ones with the earned happy endings.

Despite being Team Dark, I think you have to. A story that goes from bad to worse to horrifying just makes me sad. I'd still read it, but I would need to go something really happy afterward like bury myself in a pile of puppies. It's easier when they end happy, lol.


Oh good!  It's nice to catch up with friends.  I don't always want to go be social (especially on a day when I was looking forward to writing), but I'm always glad I did.

It was absolutely perfect weather here today - sunny and upper 60s/lower 70s - so it was a good day to mow the lawn and hang outside.  I hate yard work, but it's most tolerable on days like this.

I was hoping the 21 word sentence I wrote in one minute would improve my 3 words per minute average on Nano, but alas, it did not.  Oh well.  At least the streak is alive, and my next chapter is technically started.  I probably won't continue it until morning when I am more clear-headed LOL.

I'm glad you found the quote you were looking for and can move on!  And hooray for Death by Snail!

I didn't write as much as I wanted to yesterday, but it was a well-deserved break and a good day overall, so in the gran scheme of things, missing out on a productive writing day was fine. I still kept the streak alive, though, and that's what matters!

That is perfect whether for yard work, not too hot but still nice. And now you don't have to do it today and can have a perfect writing day instead!  ;D

How do you track your writing times? I'm pretty meticulous about tracking and will note when I start writing, then if I go a long time (ten minutes or more) without writing, I'll adjust my start time by that amount. Especially if what I was doing was not writing related. If it's research, I might let it go for fifteen minutes befor I decided to adjust my start time. Doing that might help get your word count up. But a 21 word sentence in a minute is impressive!

Yeah, it's always annoying because there's usually some options depending on exactly the emotion I want to play into with the remember quote. I tested out two of them for a little bit, then decided on one eventually.


As someone who hates most romantic comedies and loves a good romantic tearjerker, I would argue that downer romances are way more fun!  But that's just me.  I do think stories with all the Boys are more fun than stories with just one of them, though, but that's harder with romance, where the focus usually is on one of them and a romantic partner.  That's the beauty of slash - you can focus on at least two of them that way.

Aww, good for you for putting up a fight, PBox Nick!  I don't think I've ever pardoned one of the Boys once I made the decision to kill him... I am merciless LOL.  Or maybe I'm just more uncompromising when it comes to changing my planned ending.

I love a good romantic comedy, but I was deep into dark and brooding PBox territory, so I didn't think to come up with stories that would have happy endings, lol. Realistically, I should have just stuck with PBox. A downer story with a fluffy romance and all five Boys getting time to shine, lol. I feel like eventually we should all just move on to OT5s, then we can write romance and include all of them!

Yeah, he was adamant about living no matter what I threw at him. So I eventually said, "Fine, you get to live, but it is going to suck a lot for you." And indeed it did suck a lot, but he also insisted on keeping Kevin, so I let him have that concession... kind of. I figure it ended up better in the long run, so I've just let Nick drive the bus. He hasn't crashed it yet! Although right now he's upset I let him have his way as he slowly realizes that he changed his mind. Muahaha. Too bad the story is almost over now, Nick.

I think it's probably harder to pardon with a full outline, even if it's fluid. The stuff in between where Nick decided to live and the planned ending was kind of fuzzy anyway, so I decided to try out his way and ended up enjoying it. It may have gone differently if I'd had a clear vision for that portion of the story outside of "they go to Rubiihoppou to find AJ and eventually end up in this horrifying castle," lol.


I do think that's a big part of it.  I never did feel very connected to it.  It was a story I started posting on a whim after a really productive writing weekend and then struggled to update consistently for over three years until I finally forced myself to finish it.  I really do like the story and am happy with the finished product, but it's not one I particularly enjoyed writing.  It was always more of a side project until I made it be my main project for one summer and finished it.  The downer ending was planned all along; I had the whole thing outlined chapter by chapter from the beginning and didn't stay from my outline except to condense it a little.  The fact that I forced myself to finish it does give me some hope that the same thing could happen with Guilty Roads someday.

That's always frustrating when you have a really productive writing session (or a few) and get something started, but then none of the rest of it is fun or easy. I think that's a lot of my unfinished things. They started out well and then didn't. I think it's great that you did reach an ending even if you had to slough your way there! That's true dedication to your craft!

I have hope for Guilty Roads too! Really, I'm just trying to keep it in the back of your mind while you work, haha.


Yes, I agree.  I'm glad social media wasn't a big thing yet during most of that time in his life, so most of the bad behavior he's since copped to wasn't caught on video or widely publicized.  There was enough to know he was not in the best place in his life, but so much more came out after the fact when he did that People interview and then wrote his memoir.  I'm glad I did not know all those details at the time LOL.

YES! Exactly all of this. It's nice having more access to them now, but I think it would have been harder seeing everything in real time back then. We may not have lovingly dubbed him Hot Mess Nick, we may have just given up on him. Glad we didn't!


I looked it up, and yep, it was May 2001.  The Bauhaus is still online, just no longer being updated. http://backstreet-bauhaus.net/  So it must have been a different site.  I read my first fanfic in the summer of 1999 and started writing it sometime in the winter... either the end of 99 or very beginning of 2000.  I had finished my first "novel" (all 9,106 words of it LMAO) by February 2000 when I got it hosted on a site called Escape from Reality, which is also still online but no longer being updated.  God bless Angelfire LOL. https://www.angelfire.com/ca2/theyvegotitgoinon/  This damn site stopped updating partway through posting my story, so it's not complete on the site.  That kind of crap was a big motivator for me to figure out how to make my own site so I could be in control.

I was about the same. The Orlando Story was one of my first pieces and I'm laughing that it's 13 chapters available, but only about 4500 words. They clearly felt like different enough scenes to be new chapters, but that's like a chapter of work for me now, lol.

I miss Angelfire. I'm pretty sure I had an Angelfire site of some sort at some point, but I couldn't tell you what it was now. I'm surprised that the site stopped updating in 2000! That was BSB heyday!


My story was not written for the challenge.  I had already started it before Mare issued the challenge and knew it was going to be more than one chapter and have a banner, so I didn't even bother submitting it for that.  But yeah - this is why I don't do most challenges; I hate having rules to follow LOL.

Funny story - I flew out to Vegas to go to an IAWLT show with Rose and another friend in 2013, and we made shirts with the pandaskunk on the front.  We did VIP, and the Boys liked our shirts.  We had a nice little conversation with them about that video and asked if Nick was the one who came up with the pandaskunk or overall concept.  They said no, it was just designed by whatever animation company did the video.  We were disappointed there was no good back story behind it, but oh well.  At least we got a fun interaction out of it.  We wore those same shirts on one of the cruises, and Brian noticed us in the crowd (because they are bright red), so now it's become our thing.  We make new pandaskunk shirts in different colors for every tour.

You're such a rebel! But great minds think alike I suppose.

LMAO! That is a funny story, but I am disappointed that they had nothing to do with the video. Also, I did not care for the pajama things' love story. I wanted more shots of the Boys ice skating and falling over instead, lol. Or the Boys riding the pandaskunks! Do you have any shirts like that? Because I would totally offer my services, lol. It would be like riding Falcor in the Neverending Story.


That's good to know.  I do think Broken would have worked well with Nick as a high schooler, but the older and further removed from high school I get, the harder it seems to write that character and setting realistically.  Which is funny because when I was writing Broken, I was in high school and constantly questioning if my Nick seemed too immature because I was only 18 and didn't know what it was like to be 23 LOL.

I love this dichotomy of feeling like you were too young to write older Nick and now too old to write a high school Nick. I do feel like people our age write YA novels all the time, so I don't think it matters if you're far removed from high school. I do think the bigger roadblock for you might be that you've moved on from Broken at this moment and have other things to focus on and that is okay! Maybe someday you'll want to go back to high school basketball playing Nick or something completely different for OF.

Also, I've said it before, but I always felt like PBox Nick read 18 anyway. I don't know if it matters unless we were trying to write 40-year-old Nick when we were 15; we would have likely failed at that.


It feels good!  I did some research on this last year and discovered there is a sleep disorder called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  It's where your natural circadian rhythm is off by at least two hours beyond what is considered "normal" sleeping and waking times, which makes it hard to fall asleep and wake up at normal times.  I think I may have a mild case of it.  It doesn't affect my day to day life because I don't let it - I drug myself with melatonin or Benadryl so I can sleep at night and wake up in the morning with multiple alarms - but it would explain why I fall into this nocturnal sleep pattern whenever I have an extended break from my normal work schedule.  I have done this every summer since I started teaching and no longer had a summer job, but never on purpose - it just gradually happens.  I also think it probably has a lot to do with my introverted personality and writing.  I like being up at night because it's quiet and no one bugs me, so there are fewer distractions.  I can focus better and be more productive.  There's no pressure to run errands or be social or do yard work in the middle of the night, so I can write or do whatever I want guilt-free.

Interesting! This reminds me of when I learned that sleeping through the night didn't really used to be a thing until the advent of electric lighting, especially in winter. People would go to bed when it got dark, wake up in the middle of the night and do some things, go back to sleep, then wake up with the sun in the morning.

I'm not really sure what mine is. Probably somewhere in the 11pm to 1am and wake up closer to 9am or 10am range. Unfortunately, gotta be places in the morning. I can usually function pretty well with alarm wakeups as long as I try to fall asleep by 11/11:30. It gets dicey after that. Thank goodness for coffee!

I think writing in the wee hours of the night is way less suspicious to other people than doing yard work in the wee hours of the night, lol!


Another good point about the "Chapter One" vs. "Chapter 1."  AC is definitely better.

Yeah, I started out just posting the prologue as "Chapter 1" and the actual Chapter 1 as "Chapter 2," but I realized I would probably get confused by that down the road and leave out a chapter or something.  So I just posted the prologue and Chapter 1 together and am now back on track.

I guess AC does have the "1. Chapter One: Chapter Title," but that just feels way less annoying compared to AO3's "Chapter 1: Chapter One: Chapter Title." It's barely noticeable on AC too, because it goes into the little drop-down box, but AO3's is at the top of every chapter.

I would hate that if I left out a chapter because the numbering was off. Glad you got it back on track for yourself.
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nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #667 on: May 31, 2021, 11:54:21 PM »

Hehe, I love evil fanfic Justin.  I agree with the crossover thing, though; I probably wouldn't tag characters from other fandoms if they were just there to be villains or be made fun of.  I would be tempted with a story like 00Carter where some of them really are legit characters, but somehow I don't think the fans of other boybands would enjoy the way their members are portrayed LOL.

I technically could have tagged other fandoms besides BSB for my pandaskunk stories because there are a lot of Disney and Star Wars characters that make appearances, as well as real people like Lance Bass, Aaron Carter, and Melissa Schuman, but I don't feel like people looking for stories in that fandom would see mine as a legit crossover, so it just feels like a spammy thing to do.

I'm glad you're having fun writing today!

I think he makes a great villain in BSB fanfic even if it is a little cliche. Even 00Carter, I don't know... Like we all love LancyBassy, but I just don't feel like NSYNC fans would love LancyBassy. But maybe they would;  LancyBassy is pretty great! And then Justin is a real character alongside Dr. Rough, who we do love, but I feel like the difference between them is that Dr. Rough is clearly a loving parody whereas Justin has some shades of "annoyance at his arrogance" to his character. I don't know though, maybe there are people out there who would be upset that we made Howie the villain, lol.

I agree, it does feel spammy. I think for it to really be a crossover where you'd tag the other fandoms or the characters, then each fandom needs to be fairly equal and in character. If the other fandom are in character, but are bit players, then it's not really a crossover. Alternatively, if they're major players, but super OOC, then it's unlikely the other fandom would want to read it. I'm certainly not clicking on any NSYNC fanfics where the Boys are characters when there are perfectly good Backstreet Boys fanfics I could read instead, you know?

It was fun! I didn't know I was missing Justin as a villain until this moment because Nick's drama was pretty interesting to me, but I think that's more about how Nick's been coping with it rather than his past being stirred up by other characters. I guess technically Justin was still the villain, but his absence was more distressing to our crew than his presence in this case. I don't know!

I did get almost 3,000 words written today and finished my next chapter! So five left to go! They feel like they could vary in length, so I'm honestly not sure what to do on them chapter split-wise. I'm thinking maybe just write the two arcs without thinking of them as chapters unless I clearly reach a point where I think "this is the end of a chapter" and then figure out how much space they take up?  :shrug: I think I can just pick up where I left off today, but it's nice having two spots I could go back and forth between if I wanted to again. :) And I got both arcs to their climax, so I'm pretty excited about that! And, thankfully, I'm pretty excited about continuing on so I'm nearly certain I won't be having an end-of-PBox style melt down, hooray!

Edited to Add: I had to up my word count goal again since it wasn't enough for five more chapters... sigh. I've gotta stop being so wordy, lol. Still at 9 words per minute. Still projected to finish around June 12th. June 20th feels more accurate, but who knows! Maybe NaNo is right and senses my inspiration!

Not edited to add (just wanted to separate it, lol): How'd writing go for you and everyone else out there that wants to join this discussion today?
« Last Edit: June 01, 2021, 12:04:25 AM by nicksgal »
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From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

RokofAges75

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #668 on: June 01, 2021, 12:52:54 AM »

I wonder when she started putting them on AO3. Obviously they're backdated, but I wonder if it was more recently or a while ago. When did you all start putting your stuff on AO3?

I have no idea.  I've technically had an account on AO3 since 2015, but I never really went there until last year.  I started putting my stuff up last spring during quarantine and suggested others do the same as a backup because AC had gotten so glitchy, so Mare and Steph followed suit.  Tracy, Rose, and others from AC had already been posting there.


Despite being Team Dark, I think you have to. A story that goes from bad to worse to horrifying just makes me sad. I'd still read it, but I would need to go something really happy afterward like bury myself in a pile of puppies. It's easier when they end happy, lol.

Yeah, agreed.  If it's not going to have a happy ending, it should at least have a happy beginning or a happy middle LOL.


How do you track your writing times? I'm pretty meticulous about tracking and will note when I start writing, then if I go a long time (ten minutes or more) without writing, I'll adjust my start time by that amount. Especially if what I was doing was not writing related. If it's research, I might let it go for fifteen minutes befor I decided to adjust my start time. Doing that might help get your word count up. But a 21 word sentence in a minute is impressive!

I only track according to my Docs revision history, so it's not accurate as far as actual time spent writing vs. time spent researching or getting distracted.  I spend a lot of my writing time not-writing, which is why my average speed is so low.  I'm sure it would be higher if I only counted the time I was actually writing, but I focus fail so often, it would just waste even more time to track it that accurately LOL.  I spent almost three hours writing this morning, and my total came out to less than 300 words.  But I probably spent at least half that time researching and watching YouTube LOL.


That's always frustrating when you have a really productive writing session (or a few) and get something started, but then none of the rest of it is fun or easy. I think that's a lot of my unfinished things. They started out well and then didn't. I think it's great that you did reach an ending even if you had to slough your way there! That's true dedication to your craft!

I have hope for Guilty Roads too! Really, I'm just trying to keep it in the back of your mind while you work, haha.

Yeah, it really is frustrating.  I'm sure that's why there are so many unfinished fanfics online, because it happens to the best of us, and forcing ourselves to finish it is easier said than done.  Thankfully, this one was short for my novels, only 25 chapters, so I wrote the majority of it over one summer and was able to finish it.  I hate leaving things unfinished, especially when they have the potential to be great stories.  I won't forget about Guilty Roads because I still feel guilty about that one LOL.  I also have an unfinished Harry Potter crossover to try to finish at some point.


I was about the same. The Orlando Story was one of my first pieces and I'm laughing that it's 13 chapters available, but only about 4500 words. They clearly felt like different enough scenes to be new chapters, but that's like a chapter of work for me now, lol.

I miss Angelfire. I'm pretty sure I had an Angelfire site of some sort at some point, but I couldn't tell you what it was now. I'm surprised that the site stopped updating in 2000! That was BSB heyday!

LOL!  Seriously.  4,500 is one solid chapter or maybe two short ones.  My 9,106 word novel would maybe be three chapters now, but it was sixteen then!  It was probably still the longest thing I had ever written at that time.

Mine was on Geocities, but apparently Angelfire was the BSB of late 90s free website hosting sites because it's still around.  I wonder if your Angelfire site is still online?  Do you remember the name or anything about it?

I was curious so I googled and found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20010501233041/http://www.geocities.com:80/orlandostory/orlando1.html  Is that your Orlando Story??

Yeah, but that shows how fickle most teenyboppers were back then.  No warning or explanation or anything; they just randomly stopped updating it.  Same with so many other sites from that era.  I always vowed I would at least let people know if I decided to stop writing or updating my site.


LMAO! That is a funny story, but I am disappointed that they had nothing to do with the video. Also, I did not care for the pajama things' love story. I wanted more shots of the Boys ice skating and falling over instead, lol. Or the Boys riding the pandaskunks! Do you have any shirts like that? Because I would totally offer my services, lol. It would be like riding Falcor in the Neverending Story.

I know!  I found it hard to follow the [I think they're] elves' love story at first because I was so distracted by all the other random, non-Christmas-related stuff, like the pandaskunks and the submarine and the rocket LOL.  That's the kind of stuff I wove into my story.

We haven't had the Boys actually riding on the pandaskunk's back yet on a shirt, although that would be amazing!  If you feel like drawing that, that would be awesome!  The best I could do was photoshop the pandaskunk pulling Santa's sleigh and the Boys riding in that.  http://absolutechaos.net/viewseries.php?seriesid=259  It's on the banner for the second story.


I love this dichotomy of feeling like you were too young to write older Nick and now too old to write a high school Nick. I do feel like people our age write YA novels all the time, so I don't think it matters if you're far removed from high school. I do think the bigger roadblock for you might be that you've moved on from Broken at this moment and have other things to focus on and that is okay! Maybe someday you'll want to go back to high school basketball playing Nick or something completely different for OF.

Also, I've said it before, but I always felt like PBox Nick read 18 anyway. I don't know if it matters unless we were trying to write 40-year-old Nick when we were 15; we would have likely failed at that.

Very true.  I just feel like kids today are growing up in a totally different world from the one we grew up in.  But I'm sure high school drama is still high school drama.  Some things never change.  Or I could always set it in the 90s or early 2000s.  That's actually not a bad idea because it would save me some time researching.  Seeing as how Broken was written 18 years ago, I'm sure there have been medical advancements made with both cancer treatment and prosthetic legs.  Nick's top of the line C-leg is probably not considered top of the line anymore.  I'm just speaking hypothetically here because yes, I have moved on from Broken and don't have the desire to write OF or try to get a novel published at the moment.  But at least I know I have an idea if I ever get that itch again.

I don't think age makes as much of a difference now that we're all adults, but it does seem easier to write a character who's younger (especially when he's a real person you can go back and watch footage of at that age to remind yourself how he acted) than writing one who's significantly older than you.  Writing 41-year-old Nick as a 14-year-old would definitely have been a challenge LOL.


Interesting! This reminds me of when I learned that sleeping through the night didn't really used to be a thing until the advent of electric lighting, especially in winter. People would go to bed when it got dark, wake up in the middle of the night and do some things, go back to sleep, then wake up with the sun in the morning.

I'm not really sure what mine is. Probably somewhere in the 11pm to 1am and wake up closer to 9am or 10am range. Unfortunately, gotta be places in the morning. I can usually function pretty well with alarm wakeups as long as I try to fall asleep by 11/11:30. It gets dicey after that. Thank goodness for coffee!

I think writing in the wee hours of the night is way less suspicious to other people than doing yard work in the wee hours of the night, lol!

That is interesting!  I had never heard the thing about people getting up in the middle of the night to do stuff in the dark and then going back to bed.  That sounds similar to the habit I got into toward the end of this school year with my evening naps, followed by 3 hours of doing stuff before I went back to bed for the night.  I actually like waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I can go back to sleep for a few hours before my alarm goes off.  I have a much easier time falling back to sleep than falling asleep in the first place.  Although I've gotten better at that ever since I started listening to podcasts or documentaries as I fall asleep.

Your ideal sleep times are what mine usually are during the school year.  I rarely make it past 1 a.m. on a weekend because I'm so tired, and I usually wake up around 7-8 a.m. (and then go back to bed and sleep until 9-10.)  It starts to creep later and later in the summer.

LOL The neighbors would probably assume I'm burying a body in the backyard and call the cops.


I guess AC does have the "1. Chapter One: Chapter Title," but that just feels way less annoying compared to AO3's "Chapter 1: Chapter One: Chapter Title." It's barely noticeable on AC too, because it goes into the little drop-down box, but AO3's is at the top of every chapter.

I would hate that if I left out a chapter because the numbering was off. Glad you got it back on track for yourself.

Yeah, it does, but you're right - that doesn't bother me as much as AO3 because it's not as noticeable.  I just need to not do prologues anymore, but sometimes they feel necessary.  Like in SAMS, the prologue is actually a flash-forward to a later scene in the story, so it makes more sense as a prologue than a first chapter.
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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #669 on: June 01, 2021, 01:06:08 AM »

I think he makes a great villain in BSB fanfic even if it is a little cliche. Even 00Carter, I don't know... Like we all love LancyBassy, but I just don't feel like NSYNC fans would love LancyBassy. But maybe they would;  LancyBassy is pretty great! And then Justin is a real character alongside Dr. Rough, who we do love, but I feel like the difference between them is that Dr. Rough is clearly a loving parody whereas Justin has some shades of "annoyance at his arrogance" to his character. I don't know though, maybe there are people out there who would be upset that we made Howie the villain, lol.

I agree, it does feel spammy. I think for it to really be a crossover where you'd tag the other fandoms or the characters, then each fandom needs to be fairly equal and in character. If the other fandom are in character, but are bit players, then it's not really a crossover. Alternatively, if they're major players, but super OOC, then it's unlikely the other fandom would want to read it. I'm certainly not clicking on any NSYNC fanfics where the Boys are characters when there are perfectly good Backstreet Boys fanfics I could read instead, you know?

Yep, totally agree.  I love Lancybassy and Drums, but I don't think NSYNC fans would.  And yeah, I'm with you on the definition of a true crossover.  I'm not a big fan of them in general, but the two I've written that I would tag as crossovers (ER and Harry Potter) had an equal balance between fandoms, and anyone reading them would be able to tell I'm a fan of both.


It was fun! I didn't know I was missing Justin as a villain until this moment because Nick's drama was pretty interesting to me, but I think that's more about how Nick's been coping with it rather than his past being stirred up by other characters. I guess technically Justin was still the villain, but his absence was more distressing to our crew than his presence in this case. I don't know!

I did get almost 3,000 words written today and finished my next chapter! So five left to go! They feel like they could vary in length, so I'm honestly not sure what to do on them chapter split-wise. I'm thinking maybe just write the two arcs without thinking of them as chapters unless I clearly reach a point where I think "this is the end of a chapter" and then figure out how much space they take up?  :shrug: I think I can just pick up where I left off today, but it's nice having two spots I could go back and forth between if I wanted to again. :) And I got both arcs to their climax, so I'm pretty excited about that! And, thankfully, I'm pretty excited about continuing on so I'm nearly certain I won't be having an end-of-PBox style melt down, hooray!

Edited to Add: I had to up my word count goal again since it wasn't enough for five more chapters... sigh. I've gotta stop being so wordy, lol. Still at 9 words per minute. Still projected to finish around June 12th. June 20th feels more accurate, but who knows! Maybe NaNo is right and senses my inspiration!

Wow, good for you!  Five more chapters to go!  You sound like me with upping the word count LOL.  I always underestimate how many chapters/words it's going to take me to finish.  I'm glad you're still on track to finish in June!


How'd writing go for you and everyone else out there that wants to join this discussion today?

Mine went... better than yesterday?  I at least added on to the one sentence I wrote yesterday and got a little further into my Kevin chapter.  I did not write as much as I thought I would, but that's on me for letting myself get distracted.  I made a book cover for Bethlehem and Heroic Measures for when I convert them to ebook format for my site.  Then I got the bright idea to run grammar check on the stories I did not have it turned on for and see what crazy suggestions Google would come up with.  I spent at least an hour editing all the mistakes it found in AHTIM alone... and now that I've realized how many missing words and similar mistakes I still didn't catch in my many read-throughs of that one, I feel like I need to do it for all my stories.  So there is my new boredom project now that I'm done backdating LOL.
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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #670 on: June 01, 2021, 09:11:16 PM »

I saw a thread on Reddit today about "fanficiony names" (which I would call Mary Sue names), so I wondered, what's the most fanfictiony name you've put in a story?
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nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #671 on: June 02, 2021, 11:00:11 PM »

I saw a thread on Reddit today about "fanficiony names" (which I would call Mary Sue names), so I wondered, what's the most fanfictiony name you've put in a story?

Can't wait to hear Mare's contributions, lol.

I feel like I always used lame normal names like Victoria or Jessica or something like that. Maybe Minako is the most fanfictiony name I have? And it's only "weird" because I (and likely most of my readers) are English-speaking. I literally can't think of a fanfictiony name I've ever used.
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People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #672 on: June 02, 2021, 11:12:53 PM »

Yep, totally agree.  I love Lancybassy and Drums, but I don't think NSYNC fans would.  And yeah, I'm with you on the definition of a true crossover.  I'm not a big fan of them in general, but the two I've written that I would tag as crossovers (ER and Harry Potter) had an equal balance between fandoms, and anyone reading them would be able to tell I'm a fan of both.

Drums, thank you. I couldn't remember what we named Justin, lol. I think a crossover could be fine if the story is more genre blind as well. As long as you don't need to know a bunch ahead of time about whichever one isn't your fandom, it's probably more enjoyable for everyone.


Wow, good for you!  Five more chapters to go!  You sound like me with upping the word count LOL.  I always underestimate how many chapters/words it's going to take me to finish.  I'm glad you're still on track to finish in June!

I blame myself for including my editing word count too. I probably didn't need as many words as I have, but they're also getting longer than I think they would be, so maybe it's a combination of both. I derailed myself yesterday and tried to edit a tiny bit because that was all I could muscle out was examining old words instead of new words. I got 18 of them, but the streak is alive! We're starting the process of fertility testing (part of why I was in a wonky mood last week and a little MIA) and got some blood drawn yesterday morning. Then I was filling in for an absent teacher in our summer camp for the day and due to the lack of available bathrooms, I had the bright idea to limit my water intake on a hike. So of course, I was very dehydrated and tired by the end of the day with the worst headache and could not figure out how I ended up that way! lol I'm an idiot, basically. I was pretty bummed that I didn't get much writing done, but hopefully I can pick it back up tomorrow. I clearly needed another week of vacation.


Mine went... better than yesterday?  I at least added on to the one sentence I wrote yesterday and got a little further into my Kevin chapter.  I did not write as much as I thought I would, but that's on me for letting myself get distracted.  I made a book cover for Bethlehem and Heroic Measures for when I convert them to ebook format for my site.  Then I got the bright idea to run grammar check on the stories I did not have it turned on for and see what crazy suggestions Google would come up with.  I spent at least an hour editing all the mistakes it found in AHTIM alone... and now that I've realized how many missing words and similar mistakes I still didn't catch in my many read-throughs of that one, I feel like I need to do it for all my stories.  So there is my new boredom project now that I'm done backdating LOL.

How's the Kevin chapter going over the past couple of days? I know you said you did non-writing things today, but I hope it's going well overall.

Are your ebook covers very different from your banners? Is the process the same overall or is it pretty different?

I enjoy your new boredom project. Hopefully I caught most of them in Bethlehem, though I'll admit that reading in the wee hours of the morning is not conducive to catching grammar mistakes! (Or at least more subtle ones.)

How's the response to SAMS so far?
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People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.

From "And Now, Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey

nicksgal

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #673 on: June 03, 2021, 12:00:32 AM »

I have no idea.  I've technically had an account on AO3 since 2015, but I never really went there until last year.  I started putting my stuff up last spring during quarantine and suggested others do the same as a backup because AC had gotten so glitchy, so Mare and Steph followed suit.  Tracy, Rose, and others from AC had already been posting there.

What made you decide to get an account on AO3 back then? Exposure in a different place? Seemed busier? I guess this is a question for everyone who cross posts, what was the appeal of moving back to the ff.net-esque websites?

Yeah, agreed.  If it's not going to have a happy ending, it should at least have a happy beginning or a happy middle LOL.

I think so too! I'm not a big fan of "Dead Dove. Don't Eat." stories, but as I said, I'll still read them. (A reference to a scene from Arrested Development that essentially means "this is horrifying from start to finish with really dark content. I have warned you, don't complain if you hate it.")


I only track according to my Docs revision history, so it's not accurate as far as actual time spent writing vs. time spent researching or getting distracted.  I spend a lot of my writing time not-writing, which is why my average speed is so low.  I'm sure it would be higher if I only counted the time I was actually writing, but I focus fail so often, it would just waste even more time to track it that accurately LOL.  I spent almost three hours writing this morning, and my total came out to less than 300 words.  But I probably spent at least half that time researching and watching YouTube LOL.

I didn't used to track it so meticulously either. I would just count the total time I spent staring at the computer, which was often hours. I typically go to NaNo and open a "update stats" pop up, then set the time I start writing and then if I focus fail, I'll write down when the top says "x minutes since last change" and adjust the start time later (or right then if I'm on top of it.)

You do say you're always looking for boredom projects though, lol.


Yeah, it really is frustrating.  I'm sure that's why there are so many unfinished fanfics online, because it happens to the best of us, and forcing ourselves to finish it is easier said than done.  Thankfully, this one was short for my novels, only 25 chapters, so I wrote the majority of it over one summer and was able to finish it.  I hate leaving things unfinished, especially when they have the potential to be great stories.  I won't forget about Guilty Roads because I still feel guilty about that one LOL.  I also have an unfinished Harry Potter crossover to try to finish at some point.

Oh easily! Sometimes there's an idea you can't let go of and you just gotta write it right then, but then once it's on paper... Poof! I wish I felt more inclined to finish my unfinished things. I'm also not happy to be seen as someone who doesn't finish things, but I also disappeared for several years, so maybe there's no expectations for me. Which is honestly freeing! Maybe everyone's new opinion of me is "cared enough to come back." I'll take that, lol.

So I hear you saying that the path to finish Guilty Roads may be your own guilty road. Hopefully it leads to endless love and you have some control. ;) I'll see myself out.


LOL!  Seriously.  4,500 is one solid chapter or maybe two short ones.  My 9,106 word novel would maybe be three chapters now, but it was sixteen then!  It was probably still the longest thing I had ever written at that time.

Mine was on Geocities, but apparently Angelfire was the BSB of late 90s free website hosting sites because it's still around.  I wonder if your Angelfire site is still online?  Do you remember the name or anything about it?

I was curious so I googled and found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20010501233041/http://www.geocities.com:80/orlandostory/orlando1.html  Is that your Orlando Story??

Yeah, but that shows how fickle most teenyboppers were back then.  No warning or explanation or anything; they just randomly stopped updating it.  Same with so many other sites from that era.  I always vowed I would at least let people know if I decided to stop writing or updating my site.

Same! I'm glad we got a little more prolific, though how nice to read an entire novel in like twenty minutes, lol.

LMAO at "the BSB of late 90s free website hosting sites." I remember nothing! Just that it existed. But as you know, I save everything, so it's possible when I go back to cleaning the house, I'll find it. I vaguely remember writing down my usernames and passwords on a piece of paper at some point and obviously saved that because how could it not be important!

I'm so unoriginal, lol. No, that's not my story. You'd probably be better off googling the first line or something if you want to deep dive into Angelfire. I cringe so hard at this story and my terrible spelling, oh to be eleven again and have a Romeo and Juliet-esque story about Nick in my heart, lol:

I was sitting in my room doing nothing at all and being very bored. My mom and dad occasionally went past, but that was it. I would have been eating dinner if it weren't for my brother and Benevolant.

You're totally right and that's very admirable of you.


I know!  I found it hard to follow the [I think they're] elves' love story at first because I was so distracted by all the other random, non-Christmas-related stuff, like the pandaskunks and the submarine and the rocket LOL.  That's the kind of stuff I wove into my story.

We haven't had the Boys actually riding on the pandaskunk's back yet on a shirt, although that would be amazing!  If you feel like drawing that, that would be awesome!  The best I could do was photoshop the pandaskunk pulling Santa's sleigh and the Boys riding in that.  http://absolutechaos.net/viewseries.php?seriesid=259  It's on the banner for the second story.

Elves makes sense. LMAO! It was the weirdest video, what do all those things have to do with Christmas?! I'm starting to wonder if I should have done drugs before I watched it. Would it have made sense then? lol

When do I have? Until 2022? I can figure that out by then probably. I still owe you some word chickens. They're almost done, just not quite up to my vision.

LMFAO! I love these banners so much. Is this series better at Christmas time?


Very true.  I just feel like kids today are growing up in a totally different world from the one we grew up in.  But I'm sure high school drama is still high school drama.  Some things never change.  Or I could always set it in the 90s or early 2000s.  That's actually not a bad idea because it would save me some time researching.  Seeing as how Broken was written 18 years ago, I'm sure there have been medical advancements made with both cancer treatment and prosthetic legs.  Nick's top of the line C-leg is probably not considered top of the line anymore.  I'm just speaking hypothetically here because yes, I have moved on from Broken and don't have the desire to write OF or try to get a novel published at the moment.  But at least I know I have an idea if I ever get that itch again.

I don't think age makes as much of a difference now that we're all adults, but it does seem easier to write a character who's younger (especially when he's a real person you can go back and watch footage of at that age to remind yourself how he acted) than writing one who's significantly older than you.  Writing 41-year-old Nick as a 14-year-old would definitely have been a challenge LOL.

Also true! Maybe we need a panel of high schoolers to tell us what they think of their novel. Do high schoolers still text each other? Do they have gym class? Would they jump at the chance to hang out with demons in a mythical world? Would they love our favorite PTSD amnesiac with a hair-trigger temper like I do? What if they hate the boyband vibes of our protagonists? Maybe I've made a mistake getting back into this story ten years later, lol.

Ooh, yeah, I think the medical advancements would be the harder thing to update than the "high schooler vibe." At least it's there if you want to revisit it.

Thank goodness we have old footage to remind us! But then I get sucked into the nostalgia instead of focusing on Nick's behaviors and speech patterns, lol. Alas. Now I want to read stories about 41-year-old Nick's married with children life written by a 14-year-old! This sounds judgy, but I just want to appreciate the naivety. I wonder what types of problems he would have... I just know how much I struggled with making Kevin a full dimensional character at that age and he was only in his late twenties/early thirties.


That is interesting!  I had never heard the thing about people getting up in the middle of the night to do stuff in the dark and then going back to bed.  That sounds similar to the habit I got into toward the end of this school year with my evening naps, followed by 3 hours of doing stuff before I went back to bed for the night.  I actually like waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I can go back to sleep for a few hours before my alarm goes off.  I have a much easier time falling back to sleep than falling asleep in the first place.  Although I've gotten better at that ever since I started listening to podcasts or documentaries as I fall asleep.

Your ideal sleep times are what mine usually are during the school year.  I rarely make it past 1 a.m. on a weekend because I'm so tired, and I usually wake up around 7-8 a.m. (and then go back to bed and sleep until 9-10.)  It starts to creep later and later in the summer.

LOL The neighbors would probably assume I'm burying a body in the backyard and call the cops.

Yes, that did remind me of it too! I was impressed that you could nap and then function. If I nap past a certain point, I am useless. It's hit or miss for me. Sometimes I can fall back asleep and sometimes I can't.

Same. Once it hits 1am, I am a mess. Unless I got into a crazy writing focus, then I won't even know what time it is until I look at the clock and then it hits me all at once how tired I am. I think 11am is the latest I'll wake up? 9-10 is pretty average for a weekend.

LMAO! Yes they would! I don't want to judge your body burying techniques, but I'm inclined to say that if it involves a lawn mower, you might be doing it wrong? lol


Yeah, it does, but you're right - that doesn't bother me as much as AO3 because it's not as noticeable.  I just need to not do prologues anymore, but sometimes they feel necessary.  Like in SAMS, the prologue is actually a flash-forward to a later scene in the story, so it makes more sense as a prologue than a first chapter.

Ooh, that's fun! Kicks off the action right away. I don't typically do prologues, but I know that would bother me a lot if a prologue pushed the chapter numbering in a bizarre way.
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RokofAges75

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Re: The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
« Reply #674 on: June 03, 2021, 12:08:24 AM »

I blame myself for including my editing word count too. I probably didn't need as many words as I have, but they're also getting longer than I think they would be, so maybe it's a combination of both. I derailed myself yesterday and tried to edit a tiny bit because that was all I could muscle out was examining old words instead of new words. I got 18 of them, but the streak is alive! We're starting the process of fertility testing (part of why I was in a wonky mood last week and a little MIA) and got some blood drawn yesterday morning. Then I was filling in for an absent teacher in our summer camp for the day and due to the lack of available bathrooms, I had the bright idea to limit my water intake on a hike. So of course, I was very dehydrated and tired by the end of the day with the worst headache and could not figure out how I ended up that way! lol I'm an idiot, basically. I was pretty bummed that I didn't get much writing done, but hopefully I can pick it back up tomorrow. I clearly needed another week of vacation.

Oh no!  I wondered what was up with you.  I hope you get some answers - fingers crossed that they are the kind of answers you want to hear!  No wonder you haven't been on as much.  I always get a headache when I don't drink enough water too.  I hope you rehydrated and are feeling better today!  Glad you were able to keep the streak alive!


How's the Kevin chapter going over the past couple of days? I know you said you did non-writing things today, but I hope it's going well overall.

Today was busy, so I didn't write anything until I got home tonight and wrote a sentence just to keep the streak alive.  I may try to add more before I go to bed; we'll see.  But yesterday was the first really good writing day I've had in a while - definitely since my summer started.  I wrote over 2000 words, which is what I need to do more of if I want to make my goal by the end of the month.


Are your ebook covers very different from your banners? Is the process the same overall or is it pretty different?

I enjoy your new boredom project. Hopefully I caught most of them in Bethlehem, though I'll admit that reading in the wee hours of the morning is not conducive to catching grammar mistakes! (Or at least more subtle ones.)

Most them are similar to the fanfic banner, but not exactly the same.  The dimensions are different (more like a real book cover), so what works on a banner doesn't always work with the book cover.  I actually just started making new, more minimalistic covers that don't include pictures of the Boys - that way, if people do want to download them to read on Kindle or whatever, they don't look like fanfic.  Once I finish grammar-checking all these old stories on Google Docs, I'll remake and repost the ebooks.

I think I had turned on the grammar check by the end of Bethlehem, so hopefully Google caught most of them too.


How's the response to SAMS so far?

Better than for Unsuspecting Sunday, its short story predecessor.  It has a few kudos, and one person has commented so far.  She had an awesome reaction to the first shocking moment of the story, which was fun to read.  It's been so long since I started that story, I forgot how much I looked forward to reactions like that.  It's fun having people read it for the first time.
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"Sometimes writers and sociopaths are hard to tell apart." -J.K. Rowling
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